Furious Archives - Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources

Legal | The Hiroshima, Japan, police arrested a 36-year-old man on Monday for illegally uploading the manga series Gin Tama to the Internet; he was charged with copyright infringement. This comes just a few days after the arrest of another unemployed man for uploading a volume of Berserk. In both cases, the publisher and the creator of the manga involved have sued the suspects. [Crunchyroll]

Creators | In the first part of a two-part interview conducted at WonderCon, writer Kelly Sue DeConnick discusses how she grew up reading comics in the 1970s, her work for Tokyopop and Marvel, and what Carol Danvers means to her fans. [Toucan]

Wednesday marks the release of Furious, the Dark Horse superhero series from Bryan J.L. Glass and Victor Santos. As a follow-up to the interview ROBOT 6 conducted with the creators during our fifth-anniversary celebration, Dark Horse Associate Editor Jim Gibbons offered a look at the design process for the cover, promotional material and costume design.

This morning we posted the Bryan J. L. Glass and Victor Santos‘ prequel to their new Dark Horse series Furious, which debuts Jan. 29. In preparation for the issue’s release, ROBOT 6 spoke briefly with the creators, in the process discovering the character had been percolating in Glass’ mind (on some level) for more than 20 years.

Tim O’Shea: Once you learned you could run a short prequel Furious story in Dark Horse Presents, how did you two settle on what story you wanted to tell?

Bryan J.L. Glass: It was the perfect opportunity for the series as a whole! The moment chronicled in those eight pages has always been part of the character’s back story. It’s how she gets her name. She’s seeking personal redemption through super powers, so there was no way she was ever going to call herself “Furious.” She intended to be “The Beacon,” as a name representative of her desire to inspire others. Yet despite her best intentions, her actions scream louder than her words, and the world — or in this case a television reporter — dubs her accordingly. It’s an important moment. So as soon as we received the green light to introduce her via a DHP short story, I knew I could then remove it from Issue 1. Let it be referenced. It’s the terrible thing that happened on the day this superheroine tried to go public, and now she’s trying to move forward with baggage she never intended; a microcosm of everything that drives her to be a heroine in the first place.

Later this month Dark Horse will debut Furious, a new comic by Bryan J. L. Glass and Victor Santos that’s “where celebrity, fame, and superheroes meet,” according to the publisher’s website.

“Staring into a fractured mirror of her life, the world’s first superhero, Furious, seeks to atone for her past sins by doling out rage-fueled justice!” the description states. “But the spotlight of our celebrity-obsessed media threatens to undo her noblest efforts and expose her true identity before she can achieve redemption.”

But that first issue won’t be her first appearance: She actually debuted in December in Dark Horse Presents #31. Courtesy of Dark Horse, we’re proud to present that eight-page story. Check it out below, then watch for Tim O’Shea’s interview with the creators later today.

In addition to discussing the 160-page Polar hardcover, set for release on Dec. 11, we also touched upon the upcoming Furious, a Dark Horse miniseries with his Mice Templar collaborator Bryan J.L. Glass, set to launch on Jan. 29. (For additional Furious information, please read Albert Ching’s September interview with Glass.)

Tim O’Shea: You are very clear at your website in terms of the influences that inform Polar: Came from the Cold. “The story uses a minimalistic and direct style inspired by movies like Le Samurai (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967), Tokyo Drifter (Seijun Suzuki, 1965) or Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967) and novels like The Killer Inside Me (Jim Thompson, 1952) or The Eiger Sanction (Trevanian, 1979). Polar is also a tribute to artists like Jim Steranko, Jose Muñoz, Alberto Breccia, Alex Toth and Frank Miller.” I would love to discuss each and every element of those sentences, but I will just focus on two elements. How did you first find out about films like Le Samurai? When did you read your first Steranko story, and what was it?

Victor Santos: The first Steranko book I read was the Outland adaptation. I was studying fine arts, and I hadn’t really had a great deal of exposure to U.S. comics. I’d read a lot of superheroes books in my childhood, but the manga explosion of the ’80 and ’90s caught me just in my teenage years. Actually, it was during my university years when I discovered the great U.S. artists like Eisner, Ditko, Crumb, Toth, Caniff and dozens more (thanks to friends I met there, never the professors). I discovered an old Spanish edition of Outland in a street market. Wow, that stuff blew me away! The big panels contrasting the little panels, as well as that “heavy black lighting” … This edition was a big, European album size, so the double-page spreads are gigantic. I began to research. These were very intense years for me; I was absorbing all the American history of comics at the same time.

Publishing | ICv2 has Nielsen BookScan’s Top 20 graphic novels for September, which reveals an interesting month for bookstore sales. First of all, there are five volumes of Attack on Titan on the list, which means 25 percent of September’s list comes from one series — and that series is not The Walking Dead. It sort of looks like the old days, with nine volumes of manga on the chart. What’s more, the non-manga side is dominated by older titles: Watchmen, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: The Killing Joke, Fun Home… and a Garfield book. Once again, no Marvel releases — and no new DC Comics books — charted. [ICv2]

Conventions | ICv2 explains the significance of the partnership between Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo and Diamond Comic Distributors, and the article gives some background on the Expo, which started in 2011 and has grown quickly into a solid regional event. [ICv2]